i love this crazy job

I am a full-time EMT working for Central EMS, still green by many standards, having worked a little less than two years in this field. When people call me green, I tell them I like to think of myself as “fresh.” But rather than starting off on the streets full of excitement and wonder, and then gradually burning out as many have, it’s been a strangely upside-down experience for me.

Before I became an EMT, and when I was looking into this field, I had a lot of delusions of fast driving, lights and sirens, excitement, getting away from my office job, and saving lives every hour. And that's why it was so disillusioning at first to see what EMS really is. What I had to learn (and feel like I'm just arriving at) is far different than what the world would have you believe EMS is all about. That we are here for people. We are here to help people no matter what. And especially, the people who aren't easy to help.

If we're twenty hours into a twenty-four hour shift...how can we have a good attitude at three in the morning when we desperately need sleep and a drug seeker or homeless person is abusing our service? We can, but only by realizing that we are here as much or more for them as the ones in critical condition from a car wreck or heart attack. It's easy and fun to help someone who got hurt by accident, who didn't deserve this. But what really excites me about being a paramedic is that when I come to work, I know I will have the chance to help people in all situations - some of them who legitimately need my skills, advanced-life-support knowledge and equipment, and others calling me only because they can’t afford normal care, or they’re afraid and don’t know who to call.

Every day I get to be in a position of leadership, capable of influencing the way people in these vulnerable situations will be treated. For that, I am finally beginning to be so grateful for this crazy job, and learning to love it more than I thought possible two years ago.